Maple Research Collection

This collection documents the history of maple research at the University
of Vermont. Included in the collection is a selection of photographs
from the archives of the Proctor Maple Research Center (PMRC), a field
station of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station of the University
of Vermont (UVM), and the first permanent maple research facility in the
United States. The photographs, taken between 1948-1957, document the
construction of the field station’s first sugarhouse, as well as the
PMRC sugar bush and early maple experiments. Also included in the
collection are the published University of Vermont Agricultural
Extension bulletins on maple research (1890-1988), taken from both the
Proctor Maple Research Center archive and the University of Vermont
Libraries Department of Special Collections.

Maple research in Vermont has a long history, dating back to the early
1890s, when C. H. (Charles Howard) Jones, head of the UVM Agricultural
Experiment Station and a prominent early maple sugar chemist, conducted
seminal research on the biology of maple trees to better understand the
sap flow mechanism and its dependence on meteorological changes, as well
as the considerable variance in sap sugar content.

In 1946, James Marvin and Fred Taylor founded the Proctor Maple Research
Center with a donation by Governor Mortimer Proctor of the former
“Harvey Farm” in Underhill Center, Vermont, to UVM. For the first year
of operation, research on sap flow, maple tree physiology, and the
economics of maple production were conducted in an 8’ x 12’ shed. In
1948, the first sugarhouse was constructed to allow research on syrup
production techniques, followed several years later by the C.H. Jones
Laboratory (which served as the primary research laboratory until it
burned down in 1998).

Through the years, the PMRC has had its fair share of prominent maple
researchers, scientists and educators, including Frederick Laing, whose
research helped develop and improve methods of installing plastic tubing
and directed improvements in using vacuum pumps to increase sap yields,
and Mariafranca Morselli, who brought a greater understanding to the
role of microorganisms in determining syrup grade, as well as developing
methods to detect adulteration of maple syrup by adding other
sugars.

In 1999, the PMRC was named to the National Register of Historic Places,
and today houses facilities that include an 8,000 square foot laboratory
and a demonstration and research sugarhouse, as well as the original
research shed.